THERE IS A FINANCE CONTRACT between CLICO and the National Housing Corporation (NHC) for the Constant, St George housing project.And sacked NHC chairman Marilyn Rice-Bowen was a signatory to it, says Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley. His comments came yesterday in the House of Assembly while introducing a resolution to vest 2.76 hectares of Crown land at Constant for housing development in the NHC.Two weeks ago, Rice-Bowen had stated that despite her best “efforts and alerts”, she could not ensure that a contract be put in place “with the contractors, CLICO Holdings Ltd, re: The ongoing work at Constant, St George”.Lashley said the project was a joint venture between NHC and CLICO Property Development Corporation. He explained that thus far the NHC had made no financial input into the phase 2 project that numbered 65 houses. These he put at 20 two-bedroom houses on 644 square feet of land each; 22 two-bedroom houses on 476 square feet each; and 23 two-bedroom houses on 758 square feet each. He said the houses would be available at between $100 000 and $150 000.“The board fully endorsed this project and there have been ongoing discussions with the National Housing Corporation management and legal department, and also personnel from CLICO,” he said.“There is a finance contract in place between National Housing Corporation and CLICO and indeed, that contract was signed by the ex-chairman of the board on the 9th October 2009.”He noted that the matter was discussed and a letter was sent to the NHC’s general manager [Lanette Napoleon-Young] on April 7, 2009.“It is signed ‘borrower’ – National Housing Corporation, ‘lender’ – CLICO Development, to fund the value for housing construction programme at Constant, St George, pursuant to a contract entered between the corporation and the contract[or]. There is a construction programme describing the houses and it is signed by the ex-chairman and also agreed and accepted by the general manager on the 28/ 9/ 09 [September 28, 2009],” he said, adding it represented a commitment and intention to create a legal relationship between both [parties].Lashley said four small contractors had been employed to build the houses at Constant and they had performed to an acceptable standard and had conformed to Barbados’ building standards.He revealed that during the process of negotiating a $40 million loan with FirstCaribbean Bank, specifically geared for small contractors in the NHC’s housing programme, one of the stumbling blocks encountered was the bank’s concerns over how NHC would be able to satisfy the Al Barack multimillion- dollar judgement.Lashley announced that just three weeks ago packages had been prepared by the NHC’s technical department for the selection of 20 small contractors for housing projects at Lancaster I and 2, St James, and Parish Land, St Philip.He named several small contractors who had been employed by the NHC and said his ministry would not be distracted and would press on with its housing initiatives.
